Kategori: Annat

The inevitable farewell came after a colorful ending, with dancing and singing in traditional clothes. Teachers, students, parents and even the mayor of the city, formed a big ring in the middle of the big square. We danced among them, held hands together and concentrated in our dancing steps. The children looked at each other with a big smile on their lips, bright eyes and red cheeks. In a matter of minutes, one of the inhabitants of Bachevo, one of its 1600 people who lived there, was truly known for eternity. But finally, the bus came and the enchantment was broken. Goodbye Goritsa, Sonia, Nadja, Denislav and all our friends. We will never forget these fine days in May together with you in your little town. Thanks for everything.

Today was the last working day at school. The Spaniards accounted for their work with parks and nature in the cities. Although it may sound strange, some people complain about trees in the city. Complaints may concern barred visibility or dead leaves on the sidewalks. There is a lot of work left to get those who complain to understand that a green city is good for everyone. They also explained their work in investigating the transportation pattern among the people of Merida. Cycling could be a good option, and the students in Sáez de Buruaga experienced this in the city of Seville, where they have invested in public transport and bicycling as an alternative to the car. After the lecture, we visited the town hall, where we were received by the Mayor Rositsa Chatlabasheva from GERB (Citizen of Bulgaria’s European Development) who in perfect English told her that she had experience of Comenius projects, from her time as English teacher in the school we are working with in Bachevo .
After the visit we were picked up in two minibuses and a suv and up to the mountain, where you breed under sheltered forms deer and wild boar. The road there was incredibly difficult, through sandy roads with big rocks and deep hills. You became dizzy and jammed by the car jumps and turns. Finally we arrived at our destination and experienced the Bulgarian forest´s flora and fauna, a very nice and instructive experience. By that time we were very hungry and luckily a nice meal with salad and grilled meat was waiting and after dinner we took a nice walk on foot back to Bachevo. The afternoon was free to look around in the city and mingle with our friends.

The day started as usual with a small bus ride, this time the bus stopped at a giant solar power park. It produces all the energy the village needs, 5 MW. Then the trip went to a water treatment plant. It is very interesting to see how dirty water is purified and waste residues are separated and used for the production of manure. Then we went a good distance to the country’s highest railway station, 1200m above sea level. There outside the station we had picnic in the nice sunny weather. We ate Bulgarian bread and Spanish cheeses, which the Spaniards brought with them. After the food we go to the Lepenitsa cave, an experience! We managed to get there, the long way through the woods, because the bus could not drive us out, and then we split into two groups of experienced guides. We are happy and proud that we made it and tonight we all sleep well.

When we started our project, we found out that our Swedish families were quite aware of the need to reduce our environmental impact. It was therefore not particularly difficult to get family members to participate in the project, the poblem awareness was high.

Our older comrades who have already left school, started an environmental group. The group consisted of students from the Trade and Administration Program with Ahmed Hamazi and Dorontina Rexhepi as driving forces. They created an environmental corner in the school’s library with materials and documentation about environmental and environmental work. In addition to all tasks in the project, in spring 2017 a survey was made of the school’s policy on recycling, energy conservation and transport. The ”old” group handed over to a new group consisting of Trade and Administration students, HA15, extended with students from the Electricity and Energy Program. Caoline Sandkvist (HA15) and Hannes Treshanke (EE16A) are currently driving the group.The school’s environmental group conducted a survey on family habits concerning transport, reuse, waste disposal and house heating, among other things. Our families’ willingness to take personal responsibility for the environment in everyday life as well as perform related activities was very high, even if there were certain obstacles like dispersed living (problem for transport) and hard winters (problem for heating).

Our results apply source sorting, purchase of eco-labeled products as well as household travel choices, and the strength of these factors can largely explain why households are good at sorting out but getting worse on transport choice.

Report about our school and the improvement we are proposing

In order to encourage the work on environmental improvement our school participated together with fourother schools and preschools in Lund municipality try to save energy and water for six months in different ways. Both students, teachers, warders and kitchen staff have been engaged and half-time monitoring shows good results.

Our school has reduced its energy costs by 5.3% during the project and water utilization has fallen by 3.7%. This means relatively large economic and environmental savings.

For example, it may be a matter of not having unnecessary warmth in the premises and not splashing with hot water, says Elin Dalaryd, environmental strategist at Lund municipality.

Everyone staying in the school premises is important for a good result and it is possible to achieve major changes just by changing behavior. The founding of an environmental group and the presentation of our activities in the library and on our website increases the awareness of everyone at school.

– Report about the environmental behaviour of our families.

As we noted at the beginning of our report, our parents are already very aware of the importance of acting environmentally consciously. The community’s message on the issue of environmental protection is unambiguous.

Our own commitment to environmental work reinforces the willingness of our families to reuse, recycle and switch to environmentally friendly modes of transport. Yes, we have noticed a difference for the better. We cycle more and use the car with moderation. We think of before we buy gadgets and we have started to fix broken things instead of just buying new ones.

– Report about our cities and the environmental conditions . Remember we chose the green areas, mobility and pollution.

During one week, 23rd and 28th of April takes place in Lund, the so-called Sustainability Week, which is a recurring event in Lund where university, municipality, associations and other interested parties organize a week full of activities on sustainable development. During the week, you can take part in lectures, seminars and debates giving space for discussions between researchers, students, the public, organizations and politicians. We have contributed through our website, as an example of education for environmental awareness.

Some themes for the week:

Sustainable consumption. How does it affect what we buy human rights and the environment in different places in the world?

The insects make it harder to cope with a world of climate change, urbanization and high-intensity farming, how does it affect our food supply?

Environmental situation in Lund, what is getting better and what gets worse?

Sustainability and politics.

Future cities and climate change in urban environment

Food and climatePlastic in nature and new durable plastics

Green finances, bioeconomy and the business community’s role in a sustainable conversion

We started early today. Everyone had spent a first night with their host families. We were welcomed with open arms and we soon got into their daily lives. In the morning we all went to school and we received very well received Sonja, the school principal, and the teacher Goritsa. All the students stood there and, a couple of the bigger girls stood there with their traditional clothes and offered bread and honey. Then we came up to an aula where we were invited to traditional dishes. Then the Bulgarians presented their work and then it was our turn, in the Swedish group. Anton, Hannah and Felicia introduced Vipan’s work on the project during these years. Then we would have lunch and we had to eat typical Bulgarian dishes in a small restaurant. With the stomach full we went back to school to listen to the Spaniards’ presentation and then we went to the Culture House, where we participated in traditional dances and music activities dressed in traditional clothes. From there we went in a cart drawer of a horse who took us all over Bachevo. We went all in the cart and the horse managed all the steep streets. Then there was free time with our families and a little rest for tomorrow, it will be tough, we have heard.

It has been a long day but very content and educational. The first thing we learned today is that the city of Sofia is very spiritual. In addition, the city is open to all religions that are expressed in the city center, the Mosque, the Nevsky Cathedral, the Russian Church and the Synagogue, all in very prominent places. Unfortunately, we could not get into the synagogue because it was closed when we arrived, early in the morning. We were welcomed with open arms in the mosque. We men took off our shoes and left them out on the street, the girls took on shawls of different colors. They melted so well that a woman asked our Swedish girls if they were Muslims. Then we walked to the Russian Church and to Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. very old and very impressive buildings. Then we went for lunch, because we were very hungry after all our walks (we walked 8.7 km according to the app), and so we waited for our Italian friends who just came when we finished the lunch.

Our Italian friends were picked up by our hosts by bus to the hotel and we all passed on to the monastery and Bachevo, in the snowy mountains. We will tell you tomorrow, we have to sleep now. Good night!

Everything started early on Sunday morning or very late on Saturday, if you want to. Hannah, Felicia, Anton, Henrik and Martin could not sleep or did not go to sleep at all. At 3:30 pm Anton, Henrik and Martin gathered at Västra Stationstorget. Anton’s father drove with his car. At 04:00 am, the group gathered together with Hannah and Felicia, who arrived in Hannah’s mother’s car, At 04:18 the train started on the way to Kastrup. At 07:00 the first plane took of to Warszawa and, 12:40 (Swedish time) we landed in Sofia, however, it was already 13:40 local time. Soon we found our bags and went out to find the subway, which we did very quickly, and after 13 we reached the city center. It was very hot, like Swedish sommar or more, about 25% and no wind at all, nice! After some work withe the map and some inquiring, and with the help of a pharmacist, we finally found our hotel. It’s a nice hotel and we hurried out to get us some food. The Spaniards came and we went out together to a very well-known fast food restaurant whose name starts at M, and suddenly, when we sat outside in the beautiful warm evening, the sky opened and slammed an ocean right down on our table.

The old and the new live side by side; modern cars, old trams, modern buildings and old, beautiful and very worn-out houses stand side by side. The most unique is that in a radius of 300 m there is an orthodox cathedral, a mosque and a synagogue, standing there in full respect and veneration.